


keep your headphones and your sketchbooks

by Trotter



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Roommates, There is a lot of stupidity in this one, and one mention of jung jaehyun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 08:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trotter/pseuds/Trotter
Summary: So Mingyu and Minghao were into each other, a lot, that much was immediately clear. One day Seokmin came home and Mingyu was pressing Minghao down on the couch, kissing him, with Minghao’s hands slipping their belts free to tangle on the floor.“Whoops,” Seokmin said, in a weird high-pitched voice, and backed out, and walked all the way back to the library in a daze.





	keep your headphones and your sketchbooks

****

So Mingyu and Minghao were into each other, a lot, that much was immediately clear. What was less clear was exactly when they started fooling around, but one day Seokmin came home and Mingyu was pressing Minghao down on the couch, kissing him, with Minghao’s hands slipping their belts free to tangle on the floor. Mingyu jerked his head up and was thoughtful enough to look sheepish.

“Whoops,” Seokmin said, in a weird high-pitched voice, and backed out, and walked all the way back to the library in a daze.

He was happy for them, he was, because Minghao made Mingyu light up all the way and Mingyu made Minghao mellow and smiley, but then it got kind of annoying, because Seokmin couldn’t go into his own apartment, or wake up at night to get a glass of water, without Mingyu and Minghao somehow materializing in front of him, more or less undressed, making noises that made Seokmin’s ears burn.

“ _Holy shit,”_ Soonyoung spluttered, the first and only time it happened in his presence. “I watch  _One Piece_ on that couch, you perverts!”

Minghao only shrugged in his direction, dismissive, and that worked Soonyoung up enough to demand  “Are they  _always_ like that?” as soon as they were out of earshot.

“Most of the time, yeah,” Seokmin said.

“So what are you doing about it? It’s your apartment too!” Soonyoung said, still kind of shouting.

“It’s their honeymoon phase, hyung. They’ll tone it down soon.”

 “Yeah, they’d better,” Soonyoung said darkly. “I don’t want to have to rain justice down upon them.”

“Down,” Seokmin repeated.

“I’ll climb on a ladder or something, shut up. Kim Mingyu won’t know what hit him. Tell me when you want their asses kicked, ‘kay, Seoku? All this lovey-dovey stuff will not stand.”

 

It was their honeymoon phase, but it felt more serious than that. Mingyu and Minghao always had a way of making the rest of the world lock into their orbit, in thrall with how captivated with one another they were, and that had only increased since they’d started…whatever this was.

“The sauce is bland,” Minghao said as the three of them shared jajangmyeon out of a pot for dinner.

“It tastes fine,” said Mingyu.

“I could make it better with my eyes closed.”

“Don’t be a jerk.”

The way Mingyu said it–his tone of voice, the rasp in it—made Seokmin’s ears burn. He excused himself and scrambled out of the apartment, half-sprinting to Soonyoung’s to stick his head in the freezer.

 

He thought about moving in with Jeonghan, for a while, when it became increasingly clear that Minghao and Mingyu were transforming their three-bedroom apartment into a depraved sex den, making Seokmin feel like a voyeur just by breathing the same air as them. Mingyu and Minghao wouldn’t be great company even when they unstuck themselves from each other, he reasoned: they were too in love to be interesting. But that didn’t go over well, either. Mingyu with his Jeonghan complex had thrown a fit when Seokmin brought it up, and even porcelain-faced Minghao had seemed distinctly unhappy about it. Seokmin made disappointed noises in Jeonghan’s direction but he was secretly glad. It’d be a pain in the ass to drag all his plushies to a new apartment, and Jeonghan was awfully picky about space.

So Seokmin stayed, and for about a week Mingyu and Minghao were quiet, and then they began to fight.

“What the hell,” Soonyoung said blankly. Minghao had just slammed a door hard enough to make his collection of wine bottles clink. Mingyu was still behind them, pacing the length of the living room like a caged panther.

Seokmin reached for his chips. “Turn the volume up if it bothers you,” he told Soonyoung.

The next day they were smiling sappily at each other and holding hands again. Seokmin made a  _see? I told you_ face. Soonyoung gagged on his cereal.

“Sorry about all the—you know, last night,” Minghao said, his dark bangs falling into his eyes shyly.

Seokmin made himself look at their joined hands. “It’s fine,” he said. “You’re always putting up with me, and I’m always loud. Look at the time,” he added abruptly, when Minghao opened his mouth like he was going to disagree. “Soonyoungie-hyung, didn’t we have plans?”

Soonyoung tipped his head back and squinted at him.

“At the, you know.”

Soonyoung made some more stupid confused faces at him for a few seconds before he got it. “Ah, the thing! At the place. Bahaha, did you think I forgot?”

Later, as he was being herded out of the apartment, Soonyoung hissed, “What are you doing.”

“Giving them space,” Seokmin hissed back. “They probably want some time alone after all that.”

“We really don’t,” Minghao said, dryly.

“Have a nice time,” Seokmin said as he shut the door on Mingyu saying, doubtfully, “You too, I guess?”

 

It was dumb, but he was a little jealous. They’d all known each other for three years, roomed together for two; back when they couldn’t stand each other Seokmin had them both to himself, trailing behind Minghao on his photography walks and having his own secret handshake with Mingyu. In second year, it became apparent that the only reason Mingyu and Minghao disliked each other was because they were so alike, and once they made up they were going off on their own in no time, leaving Seokmin to sulk on his own. And then they’d started—this, whatever they were doing now. Dating? Fucking? Anyway, they had even less time for Seokmin now.

“I should have seen it coming,” he mused sadly to Soonyoung, flopping on the couch after the big not-date at their favorite Korean barbecue place.

“Too bad you’re dumb,” Soonyoung agreed.

Seokmin pushed his shoulder and Soonyoung pushed back, happy and drunk, and they roughhoused on the couch like puppies until Seokmin planted a kiss on Soonyoung’s open, panting mouth.

He jerked back immediately.

Soonyoung touched his fingers to his lips. “Dumb,” he repeated. If he were more sober he’d be rolling his eyes.

Seokmin let out a soft sigh of relief. Then he noticed Mingyu and Minghao hovering at the doorway, Mingyu’s eyes bugging out, Minghao’s face very white.

Seokmin climbed off his best friend without ceremony. “You’re back,” he said, stupidly.

“We never left,” Minghao said in a tight, clipped voice like a papercut.

Behind Seokmin, Soonyoung pulled himself to his feet. “It’s been rad,” he said insincerely. He smiled at all of them and picked his unsteady way through the room, and paused to wave with sympathy at Seokmin at the door. “See you tomorrow?”

“Sure, Soonyoung,” Seokmin said, miserable.

 

Loneliness was truly scary. He saw Mingyu and Minghao around campus, but it was somehow awkward to approach them, and Soonyoung had always had other friends.

He saw Jaehyun at a lecture and had to hide, in case he asked him out by accident.

 

That was that, though, except for next week Seokmin ran into Mingyu at the supermarket and they smiled from afar until it got too weird, and Mingyu finally made his way over to him in the frozen foods aisle.

"Hey," he said. Seokmin nodded a little, and put a carton of ice cream in his cart. Mingyu shuffled his feet, uncertainly. "Where’s Soonyoung?”

"What?"

"You guys are basically attached at the hip almost always. It’s rare to see you on your own.”

"Not really,” Seokmin said, thinking of Jaehyun. Then he noticed Mingyu’s basket and asked, wistfully, “Are you making japchae?”

 “Yeah, for dinner,” Mingyu said. “You should eat with us. We never do anything together anymore.”

“I’ve got—stuff.”

“Please?” Mingyu wheedled, unfairly using his big pout. “I know it’ll make Minghao happy, too.”

The japchae was good, all in all. “Did you have sex on this counter,” Seokmin said suspiciously, before he set the plates on it.

“Define sex,” said Minghao, the beginnings of a smile pulling up his lips.

Mingyu was right (he usually was) about Minghao being in a good mood. As soon as they’d tumbled into the apartment, he’d looked at Seokmin and said, “No plans with Soonyoung?” in this faintly incredulous tone.

“Not really, no,” Seokmin had said, with a strained laugh. “You guys are acting like Soonyoung and I are dating, or something.”

Mingyu and Minghao had exchanged looks. “You’re not?”

Seokmin shook his head, too overcome with the bizzarreness of the thought to notice Mingyu and Minghao's wild, delighted grins. “Nope.”

Now, Minghao laughed as Seokmin yelped and snatched the plates away, and laughed harder still when this made Seokmin bump into Mingyu. He had two spots of color, high on his cheeks, and it was always cute to see how quickly he got flushed from the wine.

“You have a nice laugh,” Mingyu said, his arm still wrapped warm and heavy around Seokmin’s waist to steady him. “Both of you,” he added, and his breath was warm on Seokmin’s neck. He laughed a little. “Guess I have a type.”

Minghao slapped a hand over his face, while Seokmin exhaled a giggle. “Mingyu,” he said. “It really sounds like you’re trying to pick up both of us.”

“I am,” said Mingyu, the same time Minghao said, “He better be.”

Seokmin blinked.  

“What.”

He had his back turned to Mingyu, but he could see the play of emotion across Minghao’s features, the defensive, tight line of his mouth relaxing into something softer when he looked at Seokmin.

“The timing’s perfect, isn’t it?” said Mingyu, voice a rumble somewhere directly above Seokmin’s face.

“Shut up, Kim Mingyu,” said Minghao. He was sweating in the air conditioned apartment, weird because Minghao originally ran a little cool. Seokmin tilted his head and watched Minghao wipe his palms on his jeans.

He crossed the remaining space between them and kissed Seokmin’s knuckles, one by one, and then proceeded to look horrifically embarrassed about it.

“Go out with us,” he said.

“What,” Seokmin squeaked.

“Us, as in  _us_ ,” Mingyu said, when it looked a little bit as though Minghao would expire on the spot. “All three of us.”

“It’s okay to say no,” Minghao said, gently, when Seokmin kept gaping like a fish. “We know you have your…your Soonyoung thing.”

That did the trick.

“My Soonyoung what?” Seokmin said. “Why do you guys keep bringing him up?” Then, with slow-dawning delight: “You guys think I have a crush on him!”

“Well,” said Mingyu, “the way you sigh whenever he’s around is pretty conclusive.”

“I sigh at you guys!” Seokmin yelped indignantly.

They both stared at him for a beat. Minghao’s lips were slightly parted, his eyes as wide as the sky.

“So,” Seokmin said, smiling, “boyfriends?”

He held out a fist.

Minghao bumped it, rolling his eyes. “I can’t believe you,” he said, with something close to genuine despair. His eyes were shining after Mingyu exaggeratedly dipped Seokmin back to kiss him, both of them laughing through the whole thing.

“More kissing later,” Mingyu said, when Minghao slung an arm around Seokmin’s shoulders and pulled him in. “The food’s getting cold.”

 

(“How do the logistics of a threesome even work,” Mingyu said, two weeks later, when they all agreed they were too horny to keep putting it off.

“I’m willing to do research,” Minghao said.

They ended up playing rock-paper-scissors for positions. All in all, it worked out pretty well.)

**Author's Note:**

> *posts this without proofreading to avoid looking at it* 
> 
> Title a reference to Wonu's part in Oh My. Thanks for reading!


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